Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba
Just
as virtue is not the same thing as correct action, beauty is not the same thing
as beautiful object, says Plato. His philosophical conception about love is to
be found in THE BANQUET : Beauty is the
image of divinity, immutable, pure, alone in itself and with itself, outside
time and becoming.
A
priestess from Mantinea, Diotima, explains Socrates that love is creation
through beauty, creation through spirit,
aspiration after wisdom, the
effort mortals make in order to become immortal. The only durable possession is
the wealth of the spirit, knowledge. With Plato, knowledge is
<<anámnesis>>,
reminiscence. Starting from the love of beauty, found in the perceptible
world, it is possible - though not always - to surpass this level. Diotima
speaks of a gradual rise to supreme beauty. It is thus that the real virtue
imagined by Plato is reached. The Good itself cannot be only truth or harmony; the Platonic Good is also Beauty (83) Love is the basic function of the soul, the
condition of reminiscence.
<<Your eyes have brought to light that
which was deeply hidden in my soul>>, Eminescu wrote to his beloved,
beautiful Veronica.
In
fact, for Eminescu love was the only genuine experience, and Plato was his
favourite philosopher. That is why from among the many Romanian folk fairy
tales he knew, Mihai Eminescu selected the one entitled THE MAID IN THE GOLDEN
GARDEN. First he put it into a poem quite faithful to the initial text of the
folk fairy tale; then he used it as the starting point for his masterpiece, THE
EVENING STAR (VESPEROS).
Still
one must mention that the register of this Roumanian fairy tale is rather strange,
given that the two characters of the love story are very different. Moreover,
love determines a twofold attempt to change the ontological statutus, which
however is not carried to completion. The emperor's beautiful daughter, loved
by the dragon, does not allow herself to be taken to a world alien to her
essence. On the other hand, the call to the earthly world of the character
belonging by birth to a different universe proves to be an error.
The
poet's genius adds to the original texture of the folk fairy tale an
extraordinarily vivid and interesting part, somehow akin to Plato's
<<anámnesis>>. There are there gorgeous poetical images, designed
to figure out subtle philosophical ideas about being and nonbeing, as well as
about becoming.
We
are referring notably to the sublime image of Hyperion's jurney to the end of
space and time, an occasion for him to receive a new spiritual irradiation. Thus,
before the meeting with the Demiurge, he had lived the
<<anámnesis>>, he had recognized his divine essence. This journey
takes place right at the time when he proposed to pass to a new ontological
status, which he wanted to ask of the Demiurge, in order to be able to exist at
the same existence level as his
beloved.
But
how does this love story actually begin ?
Under
the magic of the nights when love seems to open heaven's gates, the Evening
Star descends into the room of the
emperor's beautiful daughter, whom he had long loved and to whom he appeared in
her dream as Hyperion, a young man of unearthly beauty. Hyperion, a being who
is not born and does not die, descends crossing spaces and eras and each time
changing his appearance. The basic elements of each of his metamorphoses are
related to the cosmic existence level wherefrom he descends, each new avatar (
manifestation in human form) having multiple significances. Described in lines
of exquisite beauty and harmony, the
images of the metamorphoses and the meetings will be the most wonderful moments
of this strange love story.
But
the two lovers are much too different
one from the other. Each time Hyperion tries to get near her, the
girl seems to awaken from the
daydreaming of her love, she seems to
forget about her aspiration for a superior condition. Only Hyperion is not
aware of the pitfalls of his illusory happiness.
In
love with Hyperion, characterized by her uncommon beauty and her royal lineage, the girl seems to be half
real. Indeed half, aware as she is of
the limits imposed by her human nature.
But when Hyperion leaves and she starts being attracted to the young Catalin,
the girl becomes altogether real. Now she is Catalina, the girl Catalin loves. Her
pedestal breaks to pieces. Nevertheless
the nostalgia aroused by her love for Hyperion will last for ever ; and because
of this nostalgia she will always be different from all the other girls in the
world.
Likewise,
Hyperion's sadness, the pain caused by losing her will also endure.
<<Never shall I love
another woman, you will be in my thoughts and in my soul what you have always
been : the golden dream of my life (...), and my life with you will be my only hope (...). I think my love for you will
never die>>,
Eminescu wrote Veronica Micle on February 28, 1882. On April 10, 1882, the poet was to read THE EVENING STAR at the Junimea literary salon.
Having
the translations in modern languages, in order to get closer to divine
Plato one has -as Mihai Eminescu did - to learn some ancient Greek. But in order to indulge in the divine beauty
of this poem, in the sovereign splendor of the most marvellous poems of our
poetry, one has to know Romanian well.
Report presented at the Symposium held on the occasion of Francophone
Days at Tîrgu Neamţ, April 18-21, 1998.